BAND OF HORSES: INFINITE ARMS
[rating:4]
Band of Horses: Infinite Arms
Label: Brown Records/Fat possum
Release date: May 18th, 2010
After nearly 2 years, virtual bankruptcy, five states and a dead falcon to get there, the Low Country’s premier rock n’ roll outfit, Band of Horses release their third full length LP, Infinite Arms. The album is very much a product of a band doing things on their own terms and finally learning to enjoy the results.
Recorded over a 16-month period, the songs on Infinite Arms project the essence of the different locales across America that became the setting for the recording and songwriting process behind the album. The rich musical heritage of Muscle Shoals, AL, the sublime beauty of Asheville’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the glamorous Hollywood Hills and the vast Mojave desert all influenced the sounds on Infinite Arms and helped yield the group’s most focused and dynamic recordings to date. The serene woods of Northern Minnesota and the band’s native Carolinas inspired the songwriting, lending the compositions an air of comfort and familiarity.
As a whole, Infinite Arms reflects a genuine spirit of creativity and freedom. A freedom that feels as big as the country and landscapes the songs are written about and the way this album was recorded. Those familiar with the bands strengths; twangy country-rock balladry, Beach Boy-esc choruses and Ben Birdwell’s twangy and achy croon, won’t be disappointed with Infinite Arms. In many ways, this album is a progression from 2007’s Cease to Begin even though lyrically, the band shows little maturity. Lines like “I was thinking it over by the snack machine/ I thought about you in a candy bar” and “if Bartles & Jaymes didn’t need no first names, we could live by our own laws and favor” had me scratching my head, wondering if I had heard the lines correctly. But after repeated listen, these moments are transcended by the album as a whole to reveal a collection of exceptionally well crafted and catchy country-rock tunes that you will be humming the next day. Standouts for me; “Dilly” and “Laredo” which not only steer the album away from the more luke warm territory of songs like “Compliments” but provide the perfect desert camping soundtrack or would comfortably sit on any wilderness road trip mix.
At its strongest moments, Infinite Arms seems to ponder whether true love exists out in the expansive country. Love, in whatever form… pain, forgiveness, survival,and explores desire and forgiveness, memory and home, decay and grief. Through touring together in support of Cease to Begin and during breaks in the Infinite Arms recording process, the band have become a cohesive force with all members making invaluable contributions to the unmistakable sound that founder Bridwell has crafted since the band’s inception. As Bridwell himself concedes, “in many ways, this is the first Band of Horses record.”
